New study reveals impact of technology for children in developing world

Apr 29, 2014

Credit: UNICEF/UGDA2011-00104/Tylle

A new study by the ICT4D Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London, has revealed the significant impact information and communications technology (ICT) can have for child-related projects in developing countries.

The report, which has been developed in collaboration with UNICEF and Jigsaw Consult, is one of the most comprehensive studies in this field and will be launched by its lead author Dr Dorothea Kleine, Director of the ICT4D Centre, at a global conference at Harvard University today (Monday, 28 April).

The ICT4D Centre, which brings together expertise particularly from the Departments and Schools of Geography, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Management at Royal Holloway, was named as the world's 9th top Science and Technology think tank in the Global Go To Think Tank Index earlier this year.

"This major report will be relevant for policy makers at the highest level who are involved in international development and support poorer communities across the world, in places such as Asia, Africa and Latin America", said Dr Kleine, from the Department of Geography. "ICTs are not some sort of a technical fix detached from the complex realities of children's lives. They are increasingly woven into the very fabric of life, both in rich and increasingly in poor countries. Technology itself is only a small part of the overall challenge of social change processes for development."

The report, entitled 'Children, ICTs and Development: Capturing the potential, meeting the challenges' found that the use of technology, including mobile phones and social media, has spread rapidly across the globe, leading to an increase in efforts to use the power of communication and speedy access to information in order to aid development.

But while ICT can be extremely effective in addressing children's issues, the study also identifies certain challenges, such as when ICT development projects are planned in a top-down way, not paying sufficient attention to local context and results are not properly monitored. Summarising the evidence from 133 articles and 35 expert interviews, the report calls for an approach that is sensitive to factors such as gender and which works in participatory ways, often with children as co-designers of the projects.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has joined forces with global workforce solutions provider Air Energi Group, to develop a solution to one of the biggest challenges facing the oil and gas industry ...

As Human Trafficking Awareness Day is marked across the world tomorrow (11 January), experts from Royal Holloway have condemned the Government for failing to put the welfare of child trafficking victims above ...

Each year, some 7 million children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) die before the age of five, and close to 300 000 women lose their lives in connection with pregnancy or childbirth. The new Centre ...

In the bid to come up with authentication solutions beyond passwords, fingerprint authentication from Qualcomm is making news, and so is Fujitsu's iris recognition, yet another potential authentication tech ...

Aside from a few "nits," a federal judge appeared poised on Monday to sign off on a $415 million settlement that would end a five-year legal battle over alleged illegal hiring practices in Silicon Valley.

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal courts can hear a dispute over Colorado's Internet tax law. One justice suggested it was time to reconsider the ban on state collection of sales taxes from companies outside ...

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have launched the Clean Energy Incubator Network. The program, funded by the Energy Department, aims to ...

User comments : 0

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript.
In order to enable it, please see these instructions.